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This year's Winter Pacific Seminar will be held on Saturday, February 23, 2013, from 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., at the Los Angeles Hompa Hongwanji Buddhist Temple.
Keynote: Dr. Takamaro Shigaraki, The Path of the Nembutsu
He will speak in Japanese with English translation by Rev. Dr. David Matsumoto, Institute of Buddhist Studies. The presentation will be followed by a dialogue with Dr. Shigaraki.
This event is co-sponsored by the Institute of Buddhist Studies and the Center for Buddhist Education.
More information »
Dr. Shigaraki is a noted Shin Buddhist Scholar, former professor and president...

by Arthur Holder
from Currents Fall 2015
Responding to the changing landscapes of the academy and the wider society, the GTU has created an innovative approach to doctoral education that features new opportunities for interdisciplinary scholarship and interreligious conversation. Students who enter the PhD and ThD programs at the GTU in fall 2016 will be able to take advantage of this new approach. The curriculum recently adopted by the Core Doctoral Faculty builds on the historic strengths of the GTU while making the doctoral program more responsive to the diverse research interests and...

Though much of our religious traditions are recorded and communicated through text or action, art has been a long-standing avenue for expression and instruction of things concerning the soul.
The Flora Lamson Hewlett Library is hosting a special exhibit in honor of the 50th Anniversary of the GTU. Imaging Religion, which opens October 1 and runs through January 31, 2013, will feature visual and textual expressions characterizing beliefs from various religious traditions. Included in the display are Orthodox icons; Catholic paintings, prints, and vestments; Protestant prints; Islamic and...

For almost 40 years the GTU has been a significant part of my life, a part that underscored the theological notion of vocation that each of us is called in a particular way by God to enter a path that will enable us to grow and to use our skills and potentials to make a significant contribution to the world, along a path that will lead us to our own fulfillment.
This idea of vocation or “call” has shaped my own personal history, especially where the GTU is concerned. The GTU has called me three times, the first in 1975. As I searched for graduate programs in theology, I heard a buzz about an...

On June 8, 2018, the student-run newspaper of the University of California, Berkeley, The Daily Californian, published an article about the next president of the GTU, Rabbi Daniel Lehmann. In preparation for that article, reporters from The Daily Cal e-mailed a series of questions to Rabbi Lehmann. To help you get to know our new president better, we are pleased to present his full responses here.
Can you explain your background and why that makes you qualified to be president of GTU?
I have spent the last ten years leading Hebrew College, an institution of higher learning that provides...

From "Expanding the rainbow: Jewish LGBT group Keshet opens Bay Area office," jweekly.com
When Sasha Goldberg thinks back to coming out at 14, she recalls the things that made the process easier than it could have been.
“My mother was very supportive, and I was at the Latin School of Chicago [prep school], and they were very supportive,” she remembered, noting that she started the school’s first gay-straight alliance. “I wouldn’t say it was easy to come out at 14, but … that made a world of difference.”
Goldberg is thinking about support as she dives into her role at the helm of Keshet’s new...

The 2016 Institute of Buddhist Studies Winter Symposium, held in conjunction with the Buddhist Churches of America National Council and co-sponsored by the Center for Buddhist Education, will take place on March 3 in Visalia, California.
Talks by:
Rev. Marvin Harada Orange County Buddhist Church
Rev. Seigen Yamaoka Institute of Buddhist Studies
Professor Eisho Nasu Ryukoku University
Panelists:
Mr. George Teraoka Buddhist Church of Fowler
Mr. Calvin Doi Buddhist Church of Parlier
Video:
Nikiko Masumoto’s TED Talk: “Reigniting the Soul of Farming”
Moderator:
Rev. David Matsumoto...

Recently, Naomi Seidman, Director of the Center for Jewish Studies, traveled to Warsaw in commemoration of the uprising and the publication of her father's diary into Polish. Upon her return, the j profiled the important work her father did. An excerpt follows:
“My father was the archivist of the pre-war Warsaw Jewish community,” Seidman said in an interview. “He wrote in Polish, Hebrew and Yiddish, and was a Ph.D. of Jewish history.”
Seidman’s ghetto archives often are overshadowed by the famous Emmanuel Ringelblum Archives — a treasure trove of diaries, memoirs, artwork and artifacts buried...

By any standard, the Graduate Theological Union is unique. Envisioned as a grand experiment of cooperation and collaboration, the consortium overcame the early struggles of pioneering new ground in graduate theological education.
Berkeley was fertile soil for the germination of such an effort. By the 1950s, six seminaries representing a variety of Protestant traditions were located in the city – Berkeley Baptist Theological Seminary (later American Baptist Seminary of the West), Church Divinity School of the Pacific, Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary, Pacific Lutheran Theological...

Izak Lattu, a doctoral student in Interdisciplinary Studies, speaks against acts of violence perpetrated in the name of religion.
"Using violence based on religion is blatantly misleading; religion does not lead to violence but to love and peace instead. The suicide bomb that occurred in the Bethel Injil Sepenuh Church (GBIS) Surakarta, also known as Solo, Central Java, is not linked with one particular religion and the fatalities should be perceived as victims rather than as the believers of a certain religion. In my point of view, the problem should be located in the victim-perpetrator...

Sponsored by Ryukoku University and the IBS's Center for Contemporary Shin Buddhist Studies, this two-day symposium will offer an examination of the Shin Buddhist tradition in light of recent developments in continental philosophy and continental philosophy in light of Shin Buddhism. Particularly, it will feature an in-depth examination of key features in the thought of Shinran in reflection with the philosophies of such thinkers as Martin Heidegger and Emmanuel Levinas.
The two days will consist of a public symposium, with presentations for the larger academic and religious community, and an...

Given the continued prominence of economic recovery in public debate, two students and one alumna discussed with us the economy from a faith based perspective.
Consumerism as a World View
Christina Ellsworth, a M.A. student affiliated with the Jesuit School of Theology of Santa Clara University, came to the GTU to study theology and to expand her awareness of alternatives to consumerism. Her senior thesis was on the integration of faith with what we buy as consumers. Ellsworth’s response to the question of “How do we bring hope to a situation of utter hopelessness” pushes beyond the...

Co-sponsored by the Institute of Buddhist Studies and Center for Buddhist Education, is a Conversation with Shigarkgi-sensei on Tuesday, February 26, at the San Mateo Marriott Hotel (1770 South Amphlett Blvd., San Mateo).
All BCA ministers, minister emeritus, and minister's assistants are invited to take part in an informal conversation about the teachings and path of Jodo Shinshu with Shigaraki-sensei. A light meal will follow.
Dr. Shigaraki is a noted Shin Buddhist Scholar, former professor and president of Ryukoku University, and author of A Life of Awakening: The Heart of the Shin...

The motto of the Graduate Theological Union is “where religion meets the world,” but what does it mean? It’s easy to draw a line between what is “sacred” and “secular” (often whatever is not “sacred”), but that’s not quite it either since religion is part of the world we know and the world interacts with religion. Rather, our motto emphasizes where faith traditions purposefully encounter people and events, sometimes in unique ways — describing this encounter as crossroads, bridges, and dialogue.
The following are responses we received from current students and alumni regarding how their work...

An Interview with Robert J. Russell, Director of the Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences
Science and Religion have always been thought of as diametric opposites, searching for different truths. One need only think of Galileo and Copernicus. How have these poles been brought closer together?
The statement about science and faith always being in conflict is a myth, as exposed by Ronald Number’s book, Galileo Goes to Jail and Other Myths About Science and Religion. Many of the founders of modern science were persons of deep religious faith.
Two major works published about 100 years ago1...

The Institute of Buddhist Studies, Berkeley and Buddhist Ministry Initiative, Harvard Divinity School, Cambridge cordially invite you this weekend to:
Dharma At Times Of Need: The Interface of Chaplaincy and MinistryFundamental to the teachings of Buddhism is a description of the human condition as one of suffering, frustration and disappointment. A deep understanding of this condition is the necessary step toward living with and through that actuality, especially when we are confronted by that actuality in its starkest terms--the death of a loved one, a terminal illness, loss of hope,...

"Tradition and Insight: Our encounter with the true essence of the Pure Land Way," the 2013 Winter Symposium, will be presented on Thursday, February 28 in conjunction with the BCA National Council Meeting. Keynote by Dr. Takamaro Shigaraki.
San Mateo Marriott Hotel, 1770 South Amphlett Blvd., San Mateo
Shigaraki-sensei's address will explore the roles that a received tradition and personal engagement play in our realization of the truth of meaning of Jodo Shinshu.
Presentations will also be made by Dr. Michael Conway of the Eastern Buddhist Society, and Rev Henry Adams of the Oxnard...

Institute of Buddhist Studies Numata Symposium
Institute of Buddhist Studies Jodo Shin Center, 2140 Durant Avenue Berkeley
Paula Arai (pictured), LSU professor and author of Women Living Zen, a history of Soto Zen nuns in Japan, and most recently Bringing Zen Home: The Healing Heart of Japanese Women's Ritual (University of Hawaii, 2011) will be the keynote. Bringing Zen Home is a great book - both as an example of excellent research (15 years of intimate contact with her "consociates") and as a view of Buddhist practice that is very different than the one presented by popular western media...

Certainly ethicists have always asked the normative questions about what is right and good. That hasn’t changed since I did my doctoral work at the GTU in the early eighties. Relying on the canonical work of Tillich, the Niebuhrs, Durkheim, Rahner, Weber, Barth, and others for a grand unified theory, we focused on identifying laws, norms, and principles that guide behavior.
Today, we find ourselves in a more particularized, diverse, post-modern intellectual world, where we can’t assume that one size idea fits all. To engage the complex issues that emerge, contemporary scholars now draw from a...

By Gabriella Lettini
Originally posted on Huffington Post for Veteran's Day
War does not end when peace is declared and the troops come home. It continues to affect the bodies, psyches, souls, lands and communities of everyone involved. War's tragic legacy passes on from generation to generation, more dangerously so when it is ignored and left unattended.
The psychological and emotional effects of combat are often referred to as the "hidden wounds of war." However, given veterans' rates of suicide, depression and homelessness, to mention only some of the issues affecting our returning combat...

An institution of higher learning unlike any other, the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley brings together scholars of the world’s diverse religions and wisdom traditions to advance new knowledge, share inspiration, and collaborate on solutions.